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Introduction: Down to a Sunless Sea
"But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand—miles of them—leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues—north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither?" ~ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Chapter I - Loomings Mankind has been fascinated and frightened by the sea since the dawn of consciousness. An inhospitable place for humans, it is nonetheless a resource of great power and many uses: as a food-source, a border-marker, a natural defense, an avenue of trade, and even a focus of religious worship, it has guided and shaped the course of human cultures since time immemorial. Without the ocean, life itself would not be possible: it was from the seas' dark bosom that life first arose, and it is to her watery embrace that we all must someday return. Kingdoms wage war and make peace, grow old and die and are replaced by newer kingdoms, and still the sea still pounds away at the shore, caring not a bit for the petty rise and fall of mayfly empires. Man has taken his first tentative steps among the stars, and yet the seas remain the greater mystery. What secrets and horrors swim and dance beneath the ocean's wine-dark skin, weaving nightmare ballets at which landlubbers can only guess. The sea calls to you. Will you answer her summons? Theme: Dark Discovery The sea is a pathway to unfamiliar lands, but it is also full of secrets in its own right. PCs in a maritime campaign will constantly be making discoveries: of new lands and strange peoples, but also of new monsters, life-forms, and dangers of every description. Mood: Awe and Respect The sea is a harsh mistress, and any man who doesn't respect Her awesome (and awful) might is destined for a watery grave. Modern technology has made sea-travel much safer, faster, and more comfortable than it used to be, but even today it is not without hazards. Any vessel which sails beyond sight of land risks potentially becoming lost at sea. Radios and GPS signals can help one navigate, but even these powerful technologies are not foolproof, nor are they proof against sabotage or supernatural manipulation. And what use is being able to navigate if your engine fails a thousand miles from land, with a fierce nor'easter beginning to darken the horizon? ...and yet, despite the obvious danger, cramped quarters, and terrible food, there's a reason why so many sailors speak of the sea as their "mistress", and find themselves always, unwillingly, returning to her blue embrace. Where else on Earth are the stars so clear or the nights so quiet? Where else can a man see vast hills of ice, or watch porpoises leap from the water as they ride his ship's wake, or ride up hillsides of water as the lightning flashes and the thunder roars around him? There be good and bad, as pirates say, and the sea offers both in equal measure. INSPIRATIONAL MATERIALS Oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers have held the attention of storytellers since the first humans sat around a fire of driftwood, watching the blue salt-infused flames flicker and dance just a few feet from the pounding surf beneath a darkening dome of stars. Presented here are a small selection of media which capture the spirit of seafaring, from the days of rope and sail to the modern age of steel and sonar. Books *''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'', by Herman Melville - Don't let the infamous size of this tome scare you off, it's actually incredibly readable, interesting, touching, and even funny. A globe-spanning tale of obsession, madness, revenge, duty, work, friendship, death... and of course, that "all-destroying but unconquering whale" and the mad Captain Ahab: willing to sacrifice his ship, his crew, his wife and child, his life, and even his very soul in pursuit of vengeance against the beast that maimed him. The 1956 film version - starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, with a screenplay by none other than speculative-fiction colossus Ray Bradbury - is astonishingly well-written and well-acted, and pretty faithful to the source material as well. *''The Odyssey'', by Homer - Sailing from one end of the known world to the other (and beyond) this epic poem could easily inspire an equally-epic World of Darkness chronicle. In a world of dark animism and sinister supernatural beings, what dark wanderings might befall a captain and his crew who - intentionally or otherwise - angered the wrong sea-deity? *''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea'', by Jules Verne - This seminal science fiction novel was an astonishing leap of speculative fiction in its own day, and still provides a fascinating psychological portrait of the brilliant, brooding, and deeply misanthropic Captain Nemo and his mysterious crew of nationless submariners. The live-action Disney adaptation starring Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre is worth checking out as well, especially for the now-famous battle between the Nautilus and the giant squid. *William Hope Hodgson - Though best known for his science fiction and tales of horror, Hodgson wrote numerous novels, short stories, and poems about those who go down to the sea in ships, including The Ghost Pirates, Terrors of the Sea, Men of Deep Waters, The Voice of the Ocean, and The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' and Other Nautical Adventures. Graphic Novels * The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea: A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery, by Vannak Anan Prum - This harrowing tale of extreme poverty, forced labor, and gruesome institutionalized violence opens a window into an industry that few people realize even exists, in which fleets of slave-crewed fishing vessels spend years at a stretch without ever sighting land. You'll never look at a plate of seafood the same way again. * Hellboy, Volume 6: "Strange Places", by Mike Mignola - Hellboy goes to Africa to escape his destiny as the Harbinger of the Apocalypse, but a certain sea-hag has other plans for him. Big Red demonstrates his fondness for quoting Captain Ahab and getting drunk with the ghosts of dead sailors. * Sea Princess Azuri, by Erica Reis (now Erica Leigh Currey) - More lighthearted than most World of Darkness media, but useful visual inspiration for chronicles which incorporate cetacean merfolk, Magical Girls, and/or Sirens. Short Stories *“The Upper Berth”, by F. Marion Crawford *“Three Skeleton Key”, by George G. Toudouze *"The Shadow over Innsmouth”, by H.P. Lovecraft *"Dagon", by H.P. Lovecraft *"The Fog Horn", by Ray Bradbury Poems * The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - In a moment of poor judgement, a foolish sailor kills a harmless seabird, and thereby sets off a chain reaction of supernatural events which ultimately leaves him the sole survivor of a doomed crew. * The Seafarer, by Anonymous - You thought your old high-school poetry was angsty? The Saxons built an entire worldview on angst, isolation, and fatalism. Perfect fodder for any character attempting to outrun their dark past on the high seas, no matter the time-period they come from. * Sea Fever, by John Masefield - * The Calling of the Sea, by William Hope Hodgson - * The Kraken, by Alfred Lord Tennyson - Vague, shadowy descriptions of a titanic monster who sleeps fitfully upon the seabed, battening upon sea-worms and patiently awaiting the End of Days. Movies *''Aquaman'' - *''Das Boot'' - *''Jaws'' - *''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'' - *''Men of Honor'' - *''Pirates of the Caribbean'' (series) *''The Shape of Water'' - Director Guillermo del Toro weaves a tale of obsession, lust, dread of difference, and serendipitous love which crosses both worlds and species. Everything about this film, from the soundtrack to the acting to the makeup, is Oscar-worthy. The film's classic monster-movie source material, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels, are worth checking out as well for their eerie atmosphere of menace and their haunting underwater scenes, not to mention the malevolent-but-tragic figure of the Gill-man himself. *''Titanic'' - Nonfiction *The Bloop - One of the loudest sounds ever recorded, this unexplained acoustic phenomenon was picked up in 1997 by underwater microphones separated by thousands of miles. What kind of power would it take to make a noise like that? *''The'' Blue Planet (documentary) *Geneva Convention on the High Seas (don't worry, it's only 10 pages long) *International Maritime Organization *The S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, a 20th-century Great Lakes freighter that went down with all hands in an unexpected gale. *These Images Will Make You Fear The Ocean, by Samantha Wells - Any of these 100% unedited photographs could inspire an aquatic creature, location, or encounter for your chronicle. *UB-65, a haunted German submarine whose entire existence was plagued by mysterious accidents, from her construction before World War I to her long-undiscovered resting place at the bottom of the sea, sunk by her own torpedoes. *The U.S.S. Mary Celeste, an American brigantine which was discovered adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, perfectly seaworthy and with full stores of food and water... but not a soul aboard, and bearing no sign of violence. Music *Alestorm (musical group) *Sea songs & Shanties (traditional genre) *Seapunk/Vaporwave (modern genre) *Fado (traditional genre, Portuguese) *Flogging Molly (musical group) - Though many of this seven-piece Celtic rock band's songs deal with themes of hard physical labor, drinking/alcoholism, and being many miles from home, more than a few of their songs contain explicitly nautical lyrics, including The Heart of the Sea, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Salty Dog, Seven Deadly Sins, and Tobacco Island. Songs *Come Sail Away, by Styx *Farewell to Carlingford, by The Dubliners *Lord Franklin (traditional) *The Mariner's Revenge Song, by The Decemberists *Northwest Passage, by Stan Rogers *The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot Television * Deadliest Catch (series) * Sealab 2021 (not to be confused with Sealab 2020) RPGs * Blue Planet, Biohazard Games - hard sci fi adventure on the ecologically wild, sociopolitically contentious frontier of Earth’s first extrasolar colony world: a distant waterworld named Poseidon. No relation to the BBC documentary series of the same name. * Exalted: Scroll of Kings - The second chapter, "Blood In The Water", covers rules about ship maneuverability, Armor, Crew, Health levels, etc. Vessels are given stats in Chapter 6. * Stormwrack - This D&D 3.5 supplement deals with all manner of aquatic hazards, creatures, equipment, and vessels. Though it might take some work to translate d20 rules into d10 gameplay, the level of detail is second-to-none. * Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone - Freely mixes Homeric flavor with space opera grandeur. * 7th Sea: Pirate Nations - A supplement focusing on Caribbean adventures during the Golden Age of Piracy. * [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/342/World-of-Darkness-BloodDimmed-Tides World of Darkness: Blood-Dimmed Tides] - Although it's for what's now known as the Old World of Darkness, this supplement still has some cool setting-appropriate ideas which could be worked into a NWoD/CofD nautical chronicle without too much trouble.